Devolver Digital’s ‘Minit’ Review

Minit asks the question, “What can you accomplish in 60 seconds?” over and over again, and Tom never got tired of being asked. Here’s his review of the recently released indie game.

Minit is a adventure puzzle game published by Devolver Digital and developed by a small team of 4 people, Kitty Calis, Jan Willem Nijman, Jukio Kallio & Dominik Johann.

The premise is simple, you play as a small Q-bert/Duck person who stumbles upon a cursed sword that kills you after 60 seconds. Luckily, you immediately wake up in your bed and your adventure begins all over again to find a way to end this terrible curse. Along the way you’ll meet some people who will help you along the way, in exchange for a favour of course. You might need to clear some crabs away from a bar or help someone find their credit card, but don’t forget, you only have 60 seconds.

The visuals are as simple as the premise. Everything is adorably cute in a black and white, 8 bit art style (Think original Legend of Zelda). It’s amazing how much character and each of the sprites in the world have, despite being made out of so few pixels.

The 60 second time limit is both a really interesting game mechanic and a point of frustration. In the early parts of Minit, there is always something new to find. The playable world is vast and full of secrets, so dying and having to explore all over again isn’t such a bad thing. No doubt I’ll find a new quest to take on and get distracted. However, my frustration levels started to rise towards the final act of the game. I just needed one item to progress, but I was at a loss as to what to do next. Thus began Tom’s quest to comb over the entire map looking for anything that might give me a clue. Even the spooky clue ghosts were no help. (That will make sense once you play the game.) Eventually, I worked out that I had walked past a quest giver who was chilling in a box in an unimportant area of the map. Once I completed his challenge, I steam rolled towards the end.

Thankfully, during those frustrating last ‘minits’ the soundtrack was a delight to listen to. The beaty chip-tune score really lined up with the pressure of the 60 second clock ticking down.

Even though I managed to hit the credits screen in about 90 minutes, there’s so much I’ve yet to uncover. Just like the old school Zelda games, there are lots of secrets hidden away for me to find. I thoroughly enjoyed this game and highly recommend you check out Minit and giving it a go.